The Street Rat 108

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Eddie whispered to Maria, kicking the alleyway wall while the boys slept.

He had woken her up as soon as he got back. Usually, he stayed out until sunrise, but thought it would be better to call it a night early after the conversation he had with the two teens.

What, with the whole me-being-wanted-for-murder thing and all.

“I know it’s not what you want to hear, but you may have to retire from the hero gig, at least for a little bit, while they find the killer,” Maria whispered back.

“It’s not just that I could be caught doing rounds, Maria. So many of the cops know what I look like. There are so many people who could point and say, ‘That’s him. That’s the Street Rat.’ I could get picked up on a sweep. I could get grabbed by a random cop walking down the street who recognizes me. I could be turned in by anyone who knows who I am.” Eddie felt his voice rising.

The rustling of Tomas shifting in his sleep brought him back to the moment, to a whisper. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do about this. About any of this.” He gestured out into the night.

“I know. Eddie, I know.” She rested a hand on his arm. “All the more reason for you to lay low for a bit. We’ll figure it out. We’ll figure all this out. You need to rest. We can talk more about this tomorrow. You should sleep now.”

Eddie nodded. “I’ll try.”

They both lay down, one on either side of the boys. Eddie stared up at the sky. No stars were visible, a common occurrence in Sanders, but something about the vastness of the sky, even framed by the city’s walls and lit up by the light pollution, was still peaceful.

“Maria?” he said, his voice hardly even a whisper.

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

Eddie closed his eyes and drifted into a restless sleep.

---

The next few days blended together for Eddie. He and Maria agreed it was best for him to suspend his rounds. They also agreed that, for the time being, Eddie should lie low during the day, too, though Eddie took longer to be convinced on this point.

“You said it yourself,” Maria pleaded with him. “You’re not just at risk as the Street Rat at night, you’re also at risk as Eddie during the day. It’s not worth it.”

“We need money, Maria. We have to keep saving so that we’re not on the streets this winter. I can’t make anything if I’m staying in the alley.”

“We’ll figure that out down the line, Eddie. Right now, keeping you from getting arrested is our top priority. You can’t make us any money from jail, either.”

Eddie knew she was right, but that didn’t make him any happier. He kicked the alley wall out of frustration from thinking about their earlier conversation.

“Eddie!” Sal waved him over from the diner.

The boys looked up from their game when Sal called his name but quickly went back to playing as Eddie walked across the street. Maria looked up from the table she was cleaning and watched Eddie approach through the window.

It was her second to last day working for Sal for now, but he could tell she was worried about what Sal was going to ask Eddie to do. It was starting to get dark, and Sal didn’t know that Eddie was wanted for murder.

“I’ve got a job for you,” Sal started as Eddie walked up to him. Eddie glanced at Maria through the window, knowing she was watching and listening, but not sure what she was thinking. “It shouldn’t take too long, and I’ll pay twenty-five dollars. All I need is for you to go get a box waiting for me at the grocer’s. I’m out of some stuff I need here, and my truck won’t get in for a couple more days. I don’t have anyone else to do it for me. What do you say?”

Eddie glanced over at Maria again, though she had looked away to clean more, he knew she was still listening.

We need the money. And if I start turning Sal down, he might stop asking altogether—or worse, he could ask why I wouldn’t take it. Long-term, it’s probably best for me to take the job.

Maria still wasn’t looking up, so he had to make the decision on his own.

“I’ll do it.”

Sal slapped him on the shoulder, and Eddie turned away without looking back at Maria.

“Stay where your sister can see you,” he yelled to the boys, who waved back to acknowledge him, and he started off for the grocer’s.

The grocer was six blocks away under a big green sign. They were one of the only stores in the area that had bothered to put in automatic doors at the front. Eddie could see and smell fresh flowers in the entry as he walked up and watched the doors split before him.

“Meet me at the back door,” the old man told Eddie before he had made it through the doors to get Sal’s crate.

Figures. Wouldn’t want for the customers to see a homeless kid in the grocery store. Not like we eat, too.

Eddie headed around to the back of the grocer’s and knocked on the rusted metal back door. Eddie waited two minutes and knocked again.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Five minutes and nothing.

Eddie kicked the dumpster next to the door in frustration.

A mass of flies flew up out of the dumpster after he kicked it, and an overpowering stench followed them out. Choking back a gag, Eddie peered over the edge. This time, he couldn’t choke it back and vomited. Spitting out the last of the bile, Eddie glanced into the container again.

Shaggy.

The guy he had just seen a couple of weeks earlier trying to steal a jacket was in front of him again—this time, with an arrow sticking out of his chest, his body crumpled up in the dumpster. Eddie looked up at the roof. The way Shaggy was lying in the trash didn’t look like he’d been placed there.

He had to have fallen from the roof.

The door slammed open, jolting Eddie from his thoughts. The grocer laid the crate on the ground and walked back in without a word to Eddie.

Eddie crept away from the garbage and picked up the crate. Walking back into the street, Eddie sighed, realizing he had been holding his breath since seeing Shaggy. With a deep breath, he headed for the diner.

That could’ve been me. It would be easy for someone to mistake me for a criminal walking on the rooftops. Why Shaggy? Why not me? I know the guy wasn’t perfect, but he deserved better than that. He still could’ve changed. He could’ve turned his life around like Frank. If he only had the same chance.

Without realizing it, Eddie had made it back to the diner. He put a smile on his face and gave Sal a laugh as he clapped his shoulder and paid him.

Eddie was shaken, though.

Maria knew something was off as soon as he sat next to her against the wall.

“What happened?” Maria asked, her frustration with him running an errand while wanted for murder waning as she saw how upset he was.

“It was Shaggy,” he responded, staring straight ahead at the wall opposite him, where the boys were playing a game he didn’t recognize.

“What’s a Shaggy?”

Eddie shook his head and looked at Maria. “It’s a who. I don’t know his actual name, but it was the guy I was telling you about a few weeks ago, the one who tried to steal the guy’s coat. He looked like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, so that’s just what I called him.”

“What did Shaggy do this time?”

“He was the latest victim of the person people think is the Street Rat. I saw his body in the dumpster behind the grocer’s. There was an arrow coming out of his chest, and his body was crumpled up, like he had fallen into the dumpster from the roof above.”

Maria listened in horror, her hand over her mouth as Eddie talked.

“It could’ve been me, Maria. It would have been easy for someone to think I was on the rooftops for some nefarious reason and put an arrow in my chest. Me and Shaggy, we’re not that different. Not really. He could’ve changed. I could’ve gotten to him.”

Maria pulled her friend into a hug as Eddie broke down into tears.

“I could’ve helped him change, Maria,” Eddie cried into her shoulder.

“I know, Eddie. I know.”

The Street Rat continues with The Street Rat 109!

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